EMEC 2012
Speaker Guidelines and Best Practices
Thank you for speaking at EMEC 2012! Please take a moment to review these speaker guidelines and
best practices, provided by Content Management Corporation (CMC) and MPI.
Preparing Your Presentation
Spell Check Your Presentation for Spelling Errors and Punctuation Mistakes
• Be sure to spell check the entire presentation for misspelled words, and for punctuation
errors. Although small, these mistakes can be very distracting.
Avoid Crowding Your Presentation
• If what you want to say does not fit on one slide, spread the text over two slides. Do not
crowd it all onto one slide. Besides looking unprofessional, it will be hard for the audience to
read from the back of the room.
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Limit the number of images, clip art and videos in your presentation. Artwork is fun and
brings more detail to your presentation, but too much is distracting from your message.
•
Avoid two-line titles when giving a presentation because of the distance the eye has to
travel across the slide. In fact, consider doing a presentation with titles only.
•
Don’t animate your text unless it adds value, meaning or emotion to the content.
How many words should be on a slide?
There are no official rules, but here are a few tips and guidelines:
• If a slide contains more than 75 words, it has become a document
• Presentations with 50 or so words per slide serve as a teleprompter for the presenter. The
audience will read the slide more quickly than you can explain it, making you strangely
irrelevant to your own presentation.
• True presentations focus on the presenter and the visionary ideas and concepts they want to
communicate. The slides reinforce the content visually rather than create distraction,
allowing the audience to comfortably focus on both.
Validating your font size
What is the most appropriate font size? If you have to ask, you may be using your slides as a
document. Here are a few good approaches:
• For keynotes, don’t go smaller than 28pt. If you are consistently reducing your point size
under 24pt and using 3rd level bullets, you have officially created a document and not a
slide.
•
Put your file into slide sorter view. Look at the slides at 66% size. If you can still read them,
so can your audience
•
Stand in the back of the room at your venue and click through all the slides so you know
what people in the back row will see.
Rehearse Your Timing
• For visual presentations, a standard rule of thumb is to show 1 slide every 2 minutes.
•
Make sure you can get through your allotted time without rushing; this will help you to start
and end your session on time.
The audience will either read your slides or listen to you. They will not do both! So, ask yourself
this for every slide you create: is it more important that they listen, or more effective if they read?
Presenting Your Session at Conference
Start and end your session on time
• Begin the session at the posted starting time. Your audience members will be appreciative.
•
Be sure to allot time for the question and answer period, and still be able to end on time.
Questions & answers
• Schedule a set amount of time for questions (10 minutes is recommended). Let your
audience know at the outset how you will handle questions; either during the presentation
or at the end of it.
•
Be sure to repeat each question to ensure each member of the audience hears the question,
and that you heard the question correctly.
•
If a participant is asking specific detailed questions that would lead you away from the
presentation, suggest that you talk more after the session.
Follow your presentation slides, abstract and audience level
• The audience bases its expectations of your presentation on the session title and abstract.
•
Participants will lose interest and possibly leave the session if there is a conflict between the
abstract and the session content.
•
When you know your audience and their needs, you are more likely to have a successful
session.
Introductory biography
• Keep your biography short - something that can be read aloud in one to three minutes.
Make it a professional and friendly introduction. When you prepare your biography, make
sure it answers the question “why am I qualified to speak on this subject?”
•
A good biography builds credibility. A final touch: Do not forget to include something unique
or personal about yourself.
Audio recording
To ensure the quality of the audio recording please remember to:
• Speak loudly
• Speak clearly
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•
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Repeat all questions from the audience
Try and remain steady and consistent while speaking
Relax and be yourself!
Video recording
To ensure the quality of the video recording, please remember to:
• Speak loudly
• Speak clearly
• Repeat all questions from the audience
• Try and remain steady and consistent while speaking
• Avoid ‘busy’ clothing, such as stripes, and stick to solid colours
Nonverbal communication strategies
Research has shown that most of a message is delivered through nonverbal means
1. 7 % is conveyed by actual words or content
2. 38% is transmitted by tone of voice and volume of speech
3. 55% is delivered via non-verbal information, such as facial expressions, posture, hand
gestures, and how you carry yourself
Body Positioning
4. Don’t stand directly in front of your slides, charts, graphs, etc.
5. Stand to the side of the screen or board and use your hand, pointer, or mouse to direct
attention to important points, with the information to your writing-hand side
6. Direct all speech at your audience; don't talk into the screen or flip chart
7. Don’t hide behind a podium or table, or sit in such a way that some or all audience members
cannot see and/or hear you
Posture
8. Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, with knees slightly bent when you are not
moving about the room
9. This posture gives the appearance of being in control, relaxed, and confident
10. This posture should be comfortable and not awkward; practice ahead of time to get a feel
for it
Movement
11. Be animated as you present your material
12. Move around somewhat, even if you must remain in the area of the podium or projector
13. Don’t make erratic or unorthodox movements, like bouncing, rocking, pacing, or other
distractions
Hands
14. Gesture naturally, not mechanically, with your hands
15. Do not use your hands excessively, unless it fits your personality
16. Be careful not to make unnatural hand movements that could be interpreted as lewd or
culturally offensive (e.g. To a Brazilian audience, the “O.K.” sign Americans make with their
hands by forming an “O” with the thumb and index finger, with the remaining three fingers
raised up, means the same thing as raising the middle finger in America)
Facial Expressions
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Use facial expressions to show concern, enthusiasm, empathy, and understanding
Appropriate expressions will make you more believable to participants
Be genuine! Check yourself in the mirror before experimenting with facial expressions
Smile as much as possible, naturally
Eye Contact
21. Practice establishing eye contact with your audience to make them feel included
22. Spend several seconds looking at one person before moving your visual focus to another
person
23. Eye contact of longer than 3-5 seconds can make a participant uncomfortable
24. When the audience stops looking at you, it can be the first sign that they’ve also stopped
listening